It is so disorganized! It seems like people just name their buds and everyone just accepts it.

I have recently become interested in trying a low THC high CBD strain, mostly beings that I have such a sensitivity to marijuana that it is difficult to enjoy. A friend picked some up for me and upon a quick glance it looked like a low quality couple of buds. After looking at the buds it seems that this "low THC" is due to low quality growing rather than the strain itself having those genetic traits. This kind of thing is very irritating to me. Liars and false advertising is what this is. I really hope with all the legalization's going around that these issues can be fixed properly. The strain this is "suppose to be" is called Starship. Looks like it isnt a common strain but what I have looks nothing like what it is suppose to look like. As well as the fact it is NOT considered a medical strain, and is not a high CBD low THC plant.

It seems to me that there needs to be a more scientific approach to the naming and categorization of strains. What can we do?

I'm sorry to hear about your frustration with the cannabis market-it doesn't make anyone but the growers happy. Speaking of growing, why not grow your own high CBD strains? That would be a great way to be sure that you are smoalking on what you want to smoalk on. I am also wondering if it would be possible to separate THC from CBD through a simple chemical process. Alas, I am not experienced enough in chemistry to recommend a suitable separation method but i'm sure that some other members can think of a way or three.

All we can do to improve this strain situation is to test, test, and test some more. I wonder if TLC could be used to approximate concentrations of cannabinoids in cannabis. However, cannabinoids don't contain any nitrogen, and I don't know how that would effect a TLC test.

All the best,
-Godsmacker

I hear you loud and clear. Most of the places in LA are that way, labeling things incorrectly and even selling strains that are known to be Sativa dominant as Indica dominant. WTF? There are a few places that are good however. Mostly the places that lab test everything tend to have the best meds and the best marked meds as far as Sativa and Indica dominance and THC and CBD percentages. I have tried some low THC high CBD strains such as Sour Tsunami and a few others and indeed the flowers look and smell different from a well grown and finished high THC bud. They look and smell immature and some almost fresh cut lawn grass like. But they did work for me. Its a weird feeling, I can feel the CBD work to relax my muscles and aid in pain relief but the "high" is mostly not there, like 70-80% not there, which is great if you need to medicate and work without distractions. CBD is legal in all 50 states and is starting to be openly sold online. You might want to look for products that contain it to see if that works for your needs or to supplement other medicines. With the majority of people buying from MMJ places (at least in Cali) who just want to get high and do not really care about what % of Indica or Sativa or CBD what they are buying contains, the industry is not likely to change any time soon. But there are a few good scientifically based places that do care what they sell and where it comes from and what strain it truly is. Hope you find one of those places.

Try to source cannabis leaf. Preferably outdoor grown, no pesticides, rain washed.

Do a butane hash oil extraction on the leaves. You will likely have a high CBD, low THC product.

Even the early leaves that yellow and drop first are good for extraction and give a very mellow product. Recommended from personal experience.

That is very annoying! You build up hope and spend your hard earned cash to get something that is sub-standard and not suitable. In most countries I think unless you know the grower or grow it yourself then its hard to get strains specific to your needs. If you can get charas/ nepalese temple ball (the real soft squidgy black hash) that seems, from personal experience, to have a good ratio of CBD to THC. For me it has a slight background high and a dominant grounded relaxing effect. Tastes amazing too.
Some of the kush strains Ive tried feel like theyre high CBD also, purple kush is very relaxing and anxiolitic in small doses, as is bubba kush. OG is a great all-rounder with no edginess.

I found tangerine dream to be a pretty good strain. It was labeled properly. This particular dispensary seems to not have the stuff together or something. They are even labeling the edibles incorrectly.

A friend ate something that said it was 4 doses worth, and the candy that was 2 doses worth was much stronger. To me this can be dangerous. Especially with edibles. As they can have profound effects.

Maybe they employed this method..


www.royalqueenseeds.com/...r-known-cannabinoid--n52

Interesting what you say about leaf pitubo, I used to smoke only leaf and it was very thereaputic with zero anxiety or paranoia.

As far as I am aware this is indeed how many CBD strains are sold. Not a particularly negative trait imo, as it does increase the CBD:THC ratio (so long as CBD doesn't degrade so quickly... though I do love some THC).Then again Harlequin and a few other strains have been bred for higher CBD ratios as far as I know.

As per the OP I am in line with Mitakuye Oyasin. Many growers are straightforward with their crops and I am grateful when this attitude transfers to dispensaries it is a wonderful experience.

Letting the buds flower too long usually results in that couch lock effect that I am def not fond of.

This particular set of nugs I have resemble "dirt weed". They are more brown then green and the smell is less than great. This dispensary must be full of uninformed people.

If you want high CBD, you can use hemp and make a simple extract (alcohol soak for example). Now you have something with significant CBD content and very little THC. You can add that to your normal cannabis, or smoke/vaporize by itself, while diminishing your potential legal problems (in some places). Voilá

This whole idea that the name of strains is in any way reliable is mostly BS, particularly when growing from seeds.. The variability is way too big. Specially when it comes to the notion of ' indica vs sativa' having different effects, IMO that' s one of the biggest cannabis myths. I' ve tested loads of cannabis samples and whether they are indica or sativa, most have high THC and very low CBD content (under 1%). There are some exceptions though, ive tested a few Cannatonic samples that have had high CBD, as well as some strains from CBD Crew.. But I havent tested enough samples to know how reliable the high CBD content in those strains are, specially when grown from seed.

Also hash and charas from morrocan and indian landrace cannabis have shown significant CBD strain in most tests I've done.

Regarding the quote posted above about the CBD-increasing method, Im also skeptic about the claims regarding CBN effects. I'd love to see some research backing that up.

A girlfriend of mine used this as an alternative to risperidone (an anti-psychotic) with much less detrimental side effects. She was very happy with it, especially with the extracts from wilted, yellow leaves.

Interesting and frustrating at the same time. It seems that terpenes possibly play a roll in differing effects but i had no idea that the indica and sativa thing is possibly bs. Here's an article on that topic that might interest you.

indica vs sativa

Thanks for the link anrchy I had read about this guy's supposed studies which he will publish, but yeah, still waiting to see the data.

Regarding terpenes, theoretically yes they could affect the high but I think people jump to conclusions too hastily. They say 'such terpene has shown such activity in some test therefore cannabis that has it will have such effects'.. yeah ok but was it in human tests or animals? In what dosages? Do people ingest those dosages when consuming cannabis? How does the mix of all compounds present affect the pharmacology? etc..

So with what we know what do you feel could be the most likely cause of different effects that people propose is due to strain genetics and different chemical profiles? Complete subjectivity?

Im sure placebo plays a huge role at least in some cases, but whether its only placebo in all cases I dont know.. I´d love to see some blind tests with different cannabis strains.

I can second that..

Yes that is interesting and food for thought, but Im fairly sure that jack flash and purple kush had opposite effects tthat wernt just placebo. This could be due to the ratios of other cannibinoids present and the interactions of each. THCV for example is another cannabinoid that has supposedly been found in higher quanitities in Pakistani hash and some South african strains.
Pinpointing the desired effects by deciding between sativas and indicas may be too inaccurate but I believe it does provide some
sort of guide, I would never look for jackflash or any so-called-sativa If I wanted to slow my mind and relax my muscles but maybe it was just a perpetuated myth. Still the tall straggly wispier plants seem to produce more stimulating and anxiety inducing effects than the shorter denser stockier plants. The polar classification does seem much too narrow for such a complex plant, basically just classing it as tall and skinny or short and fat!

There seems to be evidence building that some of the difference in effects amay be due to the type of influence the cannibinoids have on the anandamide system. CBD inhibits the breakdown of FAAH, an enzyme that itself breaks down anandamide. I cant recall where it was but Im sure I read somewhere that CBD is actually quite potent when it comes to moderating THC so the small differences in percentages in different plants could make for differing effects.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1751232/
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc...ticles/PMC1573017/#bib53


It would be interesting to see double blind tests on bud that has been removed of terpines, does watercuring extract the terpines?